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Emotions in Polybius' Histories UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Emotions in Polybius’ Histories A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Classics by Regina Marie Loehr Committee in charge: Professor Robert Morstein-Marx, Chair Professor John W.I. Lee Professor Helen Morales Professor Craige B. Champion June 2017 The dissertation of Regina M. Loehr is approved. John W.I. Lee Helen Morales Craige B. Champion Robert Morstein-Marx, Committee Chair May 2017 Emotions in Polybius’ Histories Copyright © 2017 by Regina M. Loehr iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my advisor Robert Morstein-Marx I owe deep gratitude for always finding and appreciating “the light under the bushel” in my dissertation and in all stages of my graduate career. I appreciate his ceaseless guidance in helping me improve as a scholar and professional both with his quick and thorough feedback and through the example he provided as a scholar and mentor. I thank my dissertation committee, Craige Champion, John Lee, and Helen Morales, for their critiques, advice, and patience. The Classics Department at UCSB provided invaluable support for me in this process. Glenn Patten’s seminar on sovereignty and bestiality sparked my interest, and I greatly appreciate his encouragement and direction with the seminar paper which through the Classics Department’s reception and feedback led to this project. Any errors which remain in this project are wholly mine. The Classics Department and particularly Sara Lindheim took great care to support me in participating in the Regular Program at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens at the outset of this project, for which I am grateful. The Dumas Travel Awards and the American School’s Fowler Merle-Smith Fellowship also aided me in this formative stage. UCSB’s Graduate Division provided support in the middle of my writing with its Dissertation Writing Workshop, and the Graduate Division Dissertation Fellowship aided me in the final stages. I also am grateful to the supportive Classics graduate students at UCSB, especially the dissertation writing group formed this year who motivated me in the last push and my officemate Brett with whom I enjoyed working through difficult concepts. Angela Holzmeister not only supported me with her friendship but also always helped me refine my thoughts with her critical questions. I appreciate the support and feedback of my friends from the American School, particularly Elizabeth Baltes, whose conversations stimulated me to aim for high standards, and Danielle Bennett and Mike McGlin, who both supported me in the writing process when they too had to write their own dissertations. Lastly, I need to thank those who supported me on a personal level, always renewing my strength and confidence to finish this project: Frances and Randy Hahn, who became my Santa Barbara family (as well as Emerita advisor), Tess Hackney, who always kept encouraging me even in the midst of her own challenges, my siblings who thought that my becoming a Classicist was cool, my Grandma whose love and strength provided a model for me, and most of all my parents who supported me through everything despite not knowing who Polybius was: their endless love and encouragement in this unfamiliar path convinced me that I could do this. Sicut in agro . iv VITA OF REGINA M. LOEHR May 2017 Education 2017 Ph.D. Classics, University of California, Santa Barbara Dissertation Title: Emotion in Polybius’ Histories 2012 M.A. Classics, University of California, Santa Barbara 2010 B.A. Classics, Truman State University Papers Presented 2017 “Popular Emotion and Positive Change in Polybius VI.5-9,” Stanford Historiography Jam, Stanford, CA 2014 “The People and their Emotions in Polybius' Cycle of Constitutions (VI.5-9),” Classics Department Colloquium, University of California, Santa Barbara 2012 “Druidic Relations: Bridging Gaul and Rome,” Borderlands Graduate Conference, University of California, Santa Barbara 2012 “Caesar’s Druids: Reflections of the Roman Pontificate,” American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA v ABSTRACT Emotions in Polybius’ Histories by Regina M. Loehr In this dissertation I investigate how emotions work in Polybius’ Histories, his account in Greek of Rome’s rise to supremacy. My argument that moral and rational principles often underlie emotions in the Histories challenges both the Classical dichotomy between emotion and reason and commonplace assumptions that emotions were inherently negative. Moreover, emotion is essential in Polybius’ project of history and for his historiographical theory: Emotions play a crucial role in causation, critically connect moral principle to action in human behavior, and contribute to the educative value of history. Emotion for Polybius is educative for his readership in two ways. Emotions in the historical narrative teach the audience to observe and judge the characters’ reactions to emotions as correct or incorrect. Not only does Polybius present the emotions of his characters, but he also uses history to inculcate a sense of correct, normative emotion in his audience. In Chapter 1, I identify important features of emotion drawn from the modern social sciences, providing a critical vocabulary through which I analyze key passages from the Histories, such as Philip V’s first sack of Thermum. From an analysis of emotional features, it becomes clear that Polybius judges characters above all by the import, appropriateness, direction, and proportionality of their emotion. In Chapter 2, I analyze how Polybius’ emotional vocabulary compares with that of Aristotle’s Rhetoric and David Konstan’s recent analysis in The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks. In Chapter 3, I investigate emotions at work in changes of a state’s governing regime. In Polybius’ theory of the cycle of constitutions, the people’s collective emotional reactions repeatedly spark change from a worse state form to a better one until the end of the cycle. Similarly, in the downfall of Agathocles, the usurping prime minister of Egypt, the people’s emotions both reaffirm positive communal values and (perhaps paradoxically) lead to extreme violence in overthrowing Agathocles’ regime. My analysis in Chapter 4 turns to the prominent role emotions play in causing war between states: how do emotions motivate wars, especially in the paradigm case of the Second Punic War? I look at the justifiability of anger as a cause of war and its implications for Polybius’ theory of history. In the conclusion, after I recap and summarize my findings, I briefly address how the historian tries to inculcate in his readers the appropriate emotional response to certain situations, examining in particular Polybius’ remarks about pity in the Achaean War of 146 BC. For Polybius, emotions play an important role in human decision-making, justifying and prompting individuals’ actions, explaining why states change from worse to better, linking the outbreak of wars to past events, and guiding the readers to develop a correct sense of emotional behavior. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................... vi 1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 2 Polybius’ Emotions in Context ............................................................. 38 3 The People’s Moral Emotions: Internal State Change ...................... 97 4 Anger as a Cause of War ...................................................................... 164 5 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 221 Bibliography .................................................................................................. 237 vii Chapter 1 Introduction Achaeus, a rival contender for the Seleucid throne, was betrayed and caught trying to escape from Sardis under siege in 213 BC. His extremities and head were cut off and his body impaled. His captor, King Antiochus III, wept at Achaeus’ startling change of fortune. Antiochus’ army, however, felt and exhibited such joy that Achaeus’ wife, Laodike, realized that Achaeus was caught and despaired, surrendering Sardis shortly thereafter. Within this narrative provided by the Greek historian Polybius of the 2nd century BC, Achaeus’ demise sets off chain reactions of emotions which stimulate concrete results, influence important decisions, and shape the readers’ judgment of the scene.1 The highly emotional story of Achaeus’ capture raises the issue of emotion in Polybius’ Histories. When, where, how, and why do these emotions arise, and how does Polybius draw attention to them? What motivates emotion in Polybius’ narratives? How does it spark reactions, and how does it reflect a character’s qualities or a community’s values? What relationship do emotions have with rationality or morality? How do they stimulate violence? In what cases does Polybius approve of emotion and why? Most scholars assume that, in Polybius’ view, emotions have purely irrational and destructive force, although a few scholars recognize that Polybius does not treat all emotions negatively.2 This project takes the issue of Polybius’ usage of emotion in the Histories as its central critical issue. I aim to show that references to emotion often positively shape his historical narrative, provide the criteria for the success and morality of characters, actions, and even historians, and aid the historian in guiding his readers
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